If you want a boy, then you should abstain from intercourse until the day of ovulation. If you want a girl, then you should have sex from the beginning of the cycle until three days before ovulation when you should avoid intercourse. Neither Hazel Phillips nor I guarantee that this method will work. But it will at least be fun trying! All this interest in choosing the sex of a baby has reminded me of a doctor I used to know years ago. He had a foolproof way of predicting the sex of a baby.

When a pregnant woman went to see him and wanted to know what sex her baby was going to be, he would tell her that she was going to have a girl; and he would write a note in the back of his diary. Just so that there wouldn't be any argument about it afterwards. But being a crafty old doctor he would write 'boy' in the back of his diary.

When the patient came to see him after the birth, he would be able to claim a 100 per cent success rate. If she had a girl, then she'd probably remember what he'd told her. And he wouldn't need the diary. If she had a boy, then he'd take out his diary, show her the entry, and explain that she must have misheard him!

Teacher: MichaelMany articles taken from 'A word with the doctor', by Dr. John Windsor.